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In Sweden, "jämförelsepris" (comparison price) is mandatory for many goods. This means stores have to, in addition to price, display "price per gram" or whateve
by hnarn 7y ago
In Sweden, "jämförelsepris" (comparison price) is mandatory for many goods. This means stores have to, in addition to price, display "price per gram" or whatever unit makes sense.
This way, you can quickly compare different groceries despite differing packages, and shrinking the item for the same price would be visible when looking at the comparison price.
- virgilp 7y agoThis is an EU rule, no? Because it's not just Sweden. Still, tbh, it still works on some items. Eg here most producer gradually shrinked yoghurt from 175 to 140g - pisses me off, but I must assume it works.
- hnarn 7y agoSweden passed the law in 1991 and joined the EU in 1995 — and as usual, stating "this exists in country X" is not insinuating "this only exists in country X".
- foepys 7y agoRelax a bit. The only point GP was trying to make is that it's not just Sweden but in many EU countries it's also a law. There is no need to be aggressive.
- hnarn 7y agoI'm not being aggressive, I'm just frustrated because it seems to be impossible to point out that something is the case in the country where I live without one of the replies being in the spirit of "well, actually..." — so all I'm saying is that pointing out a phenomenon as geographically situated somewhere is not the same as pointing it out as unique to that location. I get this often enough that I expect it every time, so I'm sorry if some of the frustration shines through. There just seems to be a pathological tendency to correct people, to the extent where the errors are willfully interpreted as such.
- badestrand 7y agoI get why this frustrates you but as you can not change other people you could try to clarify by adding a "This might exist in other countries as well" or similar.
- RivieraKid 7y agoTo be honest, it is your "relax a bit" and "no need to be aggressive" comments that are kind of passive-aggressive. In the whole history of relaxing, no one has ever relaxed after being told to relax a bit.
- chrisdhoover 7y agoMan I’m relaxing now. Got my feet up, contemplating getting a drink after I read these comments.
- derriz 7y agoYou’re being over sensitive I think. The reply isn’t “correcting” you - it actually adds information. Strictly speaking you are correct but generally if a fact is qualified by a restriction like “this exists in country X”, given there are around 200 countries in the world, it certainly implies there that country X is somewhat unusual in some regard. If you had claimed “in Sweden, cars have 4 wheels”, then I’d find it perfectly reasonable for someone to point out that it’s also the case in other countries.
- hnarn 7y ago> If you had claimed “in Sweden, cars have 4 wheels” 1. This is a dishonest comparison, because cars have 4 wheels by definition, while price labeling is very much differentiated across the globe. 2. Even if Sweden was one of only five countries in the world where cars have 4 wheels, saying "in Sweden, cars have 4 wheels" is still not the same thing as saying "Sweden is special, we have cars with four wheels, I bet no other countries do". The fact that you interpret it more as the latter says more about your own bias than what is stated in the text.
- derriz 7y agoI’m being dishonest? It was an example to illustrate a simple point which has nothing to do with Sweden. Your 2nd point has absolutely nothing to do with anything I wrote and I’ve no idea how you inferred those claims unless you’re angry or upset. Let me try one last time with an example. In this exchange, which party is being unreasonable; A: “in Switzerland, you have to pay for plastic bags in supermarkets”... B: “it’s the same in many other countries”... A: I NEVER CLAIMED SWITZERLAND WAS SPECIAL!!!
- hnarn 7y agoAgain, you're characterizing me dishonestly, but at least this time you accurately described the situation. You're well aware that you changed the dialogue to make A sound unreasonable, instead of trying to understand why the point made by B could be understood as an unwarranted correction by A. I suggest we leave it at that because we will not agree.
- virgilp 7y agoFWIW, I was actually, honestly wondering whether this is now an EU rule. Didn't know Sweden initiated this, good for you guys, obviously it's a fairly advanced society so one would expect a lot of the good EU ideas come from you. But I was merely wondering if it was just mimicked everywhere, or it is now a formal EU rule (I suspect the latter since unfortunately our politicians are not quick to adopt good ideas, unless said ideas are somehow forced on them)
- lrem 7y agoSame EU rule is circumvented by some shops by having the comparison prices in mismatched dimensions (volume Vs weight Vs unit).
- viraptor 7y agoIn Australia the misleading part is what's actually weighed. The price per kg for canned beans doesn't help when 400g supermarket brand is 280g beans, 120g water. :( But on average, with pretty much everything else, it works just fine.
- frabert 7y agoIn Italy, canned foods must display a "dripped"(?) weight, that is the mass of the contents after the oil/water/whatever has been poured away
- icebraining 7y agoYeah, but is the dripped weight the one being shown on the price per gram display?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- frabert 7y agoNo price per gram is displayed, at least in the places I've been to.
- bbrazil 7y ago"Dry weight" is what you're thinking of.
- manicdee 7y agoThen they start injecting meat with water and dye to make it heavier and more eye-pleasing.
- 7y ago
- cyphar 7y agoWe have something similar in Australia. It really makes life a lot easier when shopping, because it means you don't need to do mental arithmetic whenever you are buying toilet paper (and when there are specials you usually find that non-discounted options are actually cheaper per-gram).
- abtinf 7y agoIn the US it’s not mandatory, and most supermarkets do it anyway.
- pikma 7y agoBut in the US it is frequent that the price per weight (or per volume) is not displayed consistently in the same units, for example $/oz for some items versus $/lb, and it's much harder to do conversions than with the metric system.
- xmprt 7y agoUnless you're comparing the price of apples to the price of yogurt, I've never seen that. Items of the same kind are displayed in the same units.
- taejo 7y agoAs you say the metric system makes it less egregious, but it also happens in the EU that one item will be shown as €/100g and another as €/kg
- hnarn 7y ago> it also happens in the EU that one item will be shown as €/100g and another as €/kg In my experience this difference is decided by what a "normal" amount of the good tends to be. For example, €/kg is usually used for meat, flour etc, but for something like spices or herbs a price of €/kg would seem silly since you rarely buy, and it's rarely sold in, a kilo. Still, a luxury of the metric system is that even if it's listed as €/100g, all you have to do is multiply by ten (aka move the decimal one step).
- walshemj 7y agoin the UK I have seen products in the same category next to each other on the shelves use different units.
- TheChaplain 7y agoYou should also add that the price label is the final price, i.e. including taxes.
- hnarn 7y agoYou're right, that always confused me when visiting the U.S. But yes, the price advertised is always the price you pay. This also goes for the deposit fee on bottles and other return items.
- null_object 7y agoInterestingly, considering how passionately you’re defending the “in Sweden” part, shops very often circumvent this law by simply folding the piece of paper that displays the comparison price so it’s hidden. This is extremely widespread, if not totally universal when it comes to really expensive items. No-one ever seems to care or notice - I often unfold the paper so the price shows again, as it’s one of my pet peeves.
- sorenjan 7y agoI've never seen this happen, and I look at the price every time I buy groceries.
- null_object 7y agoWow. This is ridiculously derailing the general discussion, but I don’t know whether you can PM me an email address or something, but when I get back to Stockholm tomorrow I could photograph and send you any number of images showing this happening. It does indicate both how blind Swedes are to the faults in their own country, and how passionately defensive they are though. Edit: This doesn’t seem to me to be highly relevant to the general discussion on shrinkflation, but to avoid the very active downvotes I’ll post to imgur tomorrow evening (when back in town).
- std_throwaway 7y agoYou could post it on a site like imgur and post the link here. No need to derail the discussion.
- sorenjan 7y agoI merely presented anecdata contrary to your experience, that does not in any way indicate any kind of blindness to faults or mean I'm passionately defensive. If you shop in stores that break the law you should take it up with the store manager, store owner, Stockholm's konsumentvägledare [0], or Konsumentverket [1]. They're violating the law [2]. I hope you had a nice vacation outside of Stockholm, no need to add an extra errand to your list when you're back in town. [0] https://www.stockholm.se/ByggBo/konsument/Kontakta-konsumentvagledare/ https://www.stockholm.se/ByggBo/konsument/Kontakta-konsument... [1] https://www.konsumentverket.se/aktuella-konsumentproblem/anmal-till-konsumentverket/anmalan/ https://www.konsumentverket.se/aktuella-konsumentproblem/anm... [2] https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/prisinformationslag-2004347_sfs-2004-347 https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-lagar/dokument/svensk-f...
- jorvi 7y agoIn The Netherlands they bypass this by having one of the item brands in 'price per subitem' and one in 'price per kg'. So say you buy some chocolate. Both are in a 12 piece carton. Brand A will note €0,10 per piece whereas brand B will note €0,15 per 100g.
- chiefalchemist 7y agoWe have similar here in the USA. However, the unit aren't always the same. Usually, but not 100% of the time. Also, it's not clear to me if the per unit price reflects a sale price. For where I shop I don't think it does. They don't bother. Finally, all well and good but best I can tell most ppl lack the basic math skills and/or desire to make an informed decision. This is why shelf space and ad budgets are still so popular with brands.
- bborud 7y agoThis is why I don't buy certain types of refills where the refill is actually more expensive per unit of measure than what it is supposed to refill.
- dfawcus 7y agoThe similar per unit (usually per g, per kg, per ml) pricing is a recent addition in UK shops, only in the last 2-3 years as I recall. So while Sweden had this as a national law w/o EU pushing it, I rather suspect the UK now having the same is due to Single Market harmonisation - i.e. an EU rule. That is what the SM does.